How They Ended
Lamont knew as soon as it happened.
Everyone who knew the two of them marveled at how calm they were about each other, considering the amount of danger they were in almost daily. The others chalked it up to cavalier attitudes and experience, and on Luce’s side, this was probably right. By the time you were as old as they were, it didn’t really matter what the outside world was doing. They’d been through so much shit together that Luce probably thought they were invincible, just like a kid would think. They weren’t going to die, they were going to live forever, and when God or Time or Whatever decided they were done with this Earth, they would just disappear one day, POOF! Cease to exist with zero fanfare and that would be that. They’d never even notice.
But Lamont noticed, even though he was on the road and it was three in the morning and he was in the middle of a Henley song.
It wasn’t one of those mystical moments, either. He didn’t have a Hallmark Channel visitation from a handsome young Luce, sitting in the passenger seat and spouting wisdom and good-byes. Luce would never have gone for that, and if he /had/ ever appeared, he would’ve slapped Lamont in the face and gone out laughing about how he’d gotten one last jump on his best friend.
He knew because about thirty years ago he’d paid to know. Not /that/ kind of paid, he’d gotten lucky with /that/. It was something small, a spell a witch had put on the ring he wore. It was risky, asking witches to help with anything, but he’d safeguarded as best he could and only asked for a minor spell. The ring would turn red when Luce died. It would go back to silver if he returned. That was it. With all the drugs Luce did and the crazy clients he had, it had made sense to have something that would always, /always/ tell him Luce was alive. That no matter what crap was falling down around either one of them, Luce was /alive/, and that was what was important and they were /okay/.
The ring was red now. It had been red for a good thirty seconds.
Lamont didn’t panic, though his stomach was suddenly a block of ice. He pulled over, turned the radio off and called Hanna.
(Source: eighthchiharu)
